Yay! I am so on a roll right now! This is all for you guys! I love my fans and I love it when people review and let me know what they think! Your excitement fuels my inspiration. So the more reviews and comments I get, the faster I'm likely to update. So keep em coming and on with the fic!

Disclaimer: I might only own this fic, but I'm loving it at the moment.

Chapter four

The following day, an anbu was sent out, by order of Tsunade, with a mission statement for Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto, and Inuzuka Kiba. She had picked them a fairly easy mission, but not one so simple that they would get bored; a simple search and destroy. The only catch, the team was not allowed to read the mission statement until they reached their destination, which was a small village to the east; about a day away.

"What type of mission doesn't let you know what you have to do beforehand?" Naruto complained. He was waiting at the front gates with Kiba and Akamaru.

"Don't be so loud." Kiba said.

The rest of Konoha was still fast asleep, waiting for the sun to rise. Naruto, Kiba and Sakura had all decided to leave early, in hopes that they could cover as much ground as possible in one day. Right now, the two of them were waiting for Sakura to show up. Tsunade had requested a audience with her before the mission started, leaving them to do nothing but stand there and wait.

"Man, I'm already sick of this. What do you think they're talking about?" Kiba asked to no one in particular. He hated waiting on women. They were always so slow. Akamaru whined and rubbed his head against his leg.

"Knowing that old lady, she's probably gonna make Sakura the leader of this mission and give her more info than we're going to get." Naruto said, now leaning against the wall with his hands resting behind his head.

Kiba inwardly groaned. Sure, he had no problem taking orders. He was a ninja and had been doing it all his life. He just hated taking orders from women. It was nothing personal. Just his personality. He was an Inuzuka male and they did not do well being told what to do by females. They were natural leaders of the pack. He looked down at Akamaru who knew exactly what his friend was thinking.

"Relax, I doubt shell go all power hungry." Akamaru barked. He himself, had no problem taking orders from a female. Usually, they were the ones that would scratch him behind the ear for a job well done.

"Yeah, I know. But still..."

Naruto watched the display from where he was standing on the wall. It was so odd to see Kiba talking to Akamaru. He knew that they both understood what each other was saying, but still. 'I wonder if I can learn to talk to dogs.'

Sakura was just making her way into Tsunade's office as the anbu had ordered. She, Kiba, and Naruto had just been making their way out of the village when the anbu had shown up with a summons from the hokage for her. She couldn't really think of what the hokage wanted to say, seeing as none of the mission details were given to them. Perhaps she was going to let her know something else about the mission, Sakura thought.

When she got to the doors that lead into the hokage's office, she knocked. "Hello, Lady Tsunade?"

Tsunade looked up from the scroll she had been reading over, expecting Sakura's arrival. "Come in." she called out and rolled the scroll up, tucking it away in her desk just as the doors were closing behind her. Tsunade looked Sakura over before starting to say what had been bothering her.

"I have something that I wanted to clear up before you left." Tsunade began. She softened her gaze when she noticed how stiff the younger girl was under it. "Don't worry, it's just a few questions."

'Uh...ok." Sakura sighed. She wasn't sure what was going on, but she was getting a weird feeling.

Tsunade nodded. "First off, the only females that graduated in your group from the academy were, Hinata, Ino, yourself, and Tenten right?"

"That's correct." Sakura agreed, trying to figure out where this could possibly be leading.

Tsunade continued. "And, Hinata left for a mission, leaving only you, Ino, and Tenten in the village?"

When Sakura agreed again, Tsunade almost wanted to scream, but managed to keep her composure. After talking to Tsume yesterday, she had been up all night thinking about the current Kiba situation, still trying to narrow down the list. Once she put her mind to it, the equation itself wasn't so hard.

There were only four girls that Kiba hung around enough to be able to identify their strengths and weaknesses. Out of those four, one was gone during the night that Kiba went into heat, leaving only three possible suspects. Though, Tsunade hated to mention it, Tenten and Sakura were the closest in strength out of those two. And one of them, was Kiba's mate, but which one?

Of course, Tsunade didn't exclude the other females in the village. Kiba could have had connections to someone that wasn't a kunoichi. Strength did come in all types of ways after all. Right now, she just had to go with the obvious. And if this didn't work, then she would focus on the other girls in Konoha.

Sakura was standing there, waiting for Tsunade to say something, anything. She looked deep in thought, but what could she be really thinking about that had to do with she and her friends? "Is everything well? With the girls, I mean?" She would hate to think that something was wrong with any of them. Being the only group of kunoichi to graduate from the academy that year, they all had a pretty strong bond with each other.

Tsunade snapped back to reality at Sakura's voice. "No, I was just thinking about something." All though she hated to think that Sakura might be the girl that was forced into this position, she had to face the facts. Tsunade sighed. This whole situation was going to get messier than she thought.

"I'm taking Naruto off the mission. I have something else I need him to do. Send him to my office. Also, Kiba is the team captain and only you and he will leave now...You're dismissed." Tsunade stated with an air of finality, leaving Sakura with no rooms for questions. All she could really no was bow and leave. As soon as the doors closed, Tsunade groaned and rested her head on the desk. She was going to need a drink when all of this was over, a permanent drinking vacation in fact.

Sakura made her way out of the hokage's tower and was heading back to the front gate where Naruto and Kiba were still waiting for her. Her mind was going into overload, picking through the questions that she had been asked and trying to figure our what Tsunade had planned. It was odd for her to be so interested in the kunoichi, especially that particular group. Sure, they had all proven themselves over the years, going through more than most ninja's went through their first time out of the academy, but what was it.

Then there was the issue of Naruto being taken off the mission. No, Sakura had no problem working with Kiba, though she had never done it before. Naruto had always gone on every mission she's ever been on. Not like she needed him or depended on him, he was just always there. Like a security blanket almost. Sakura sighed. And Kiba was the leader of the mission. She had seen the dog nin in action a few times. He was brash and didn't seem to think his next move out too thoroughly. That kind of left her wondering how this mission would end up.

Eventually, the front gates came into view. Sakura walked over to Kiba and Naruto and apologized for keeping them waiting for so long. Then she looked towards Naruto. "Tsunade wants to see you. She's taking you off the mission." she said sadly.

Naruto paused for a second, letting the words that Sakura had said sink in. Tsunade was taking him off the mission. Him! "WHAT! WHY!"

Sakura could only shrug. "She said she has something else she needs you to do. So only Kiba and I are going on this mission...And he's the team leader." she added as an afterthought.

Naruto couldn't believe this. She had another mission. Weren't there other ninja in Konoha that could handle it? He had really been looking forward to this. Besides Sasuke, it was almost like the old team was together again. He hadn't been on a mission with Sakura in forever. She was always working and never had time. And, Sakura and Kiba had never worked together before. They barely even communicated. They would need him there to level the situation.

"I can't get taken off this mission. That's ridiculous. How could she do that?"

"I don't know. I was just told this and you have to go see her now." Sakura said. She already knew that Naruto wouldn't take this well and she hoped that Lady Tsunade had a good reason for this cause he was not going to be calm when he got to that office.

"But, I..."

Kiba had gotten tired of this already and was ready to go. "You can't do anything about it Naruto. You might as well just go and see what she wants. Besides, Sakura and I have to go. We've wasted enough time here." he said, walking out of the gates with Akamaru at his side.

Sakura frowned at Kiba's back and then turned to Naruto. "Don't let him get to you. If the hokage wants you for another mission, it must be extremely important." she said, knowing that it would make her friend fell somewhat better about the situation.

Naruto sighed and slumped his shoulders. Sakura did have a point. But, he still didn't want to miss out on this mission. Oh well. "Guess I'll see you guys later then." he waved and walked off.

Sakura watched him go and then ran to catch up with Kiba's retreating form, keeping a small distance between them. With any other person, she have run up and hit them or yelled at them for being so rude to Naruto. He was her friend and over the years, she had become very protective of him. But, for some reason, she couldn't bring herself to do that right now. There was an odd feeling in the back of her mind that was stopping her.

Sure, Sakura was never one to get scared of anyone and she certainly wasn't afraid of Kiba. She just chopped it up to the fact that she didn't know him all that well ad this would be her first mission with him. Then again, when had that ever stopped her from doing what she wanted.

Sakura shook her head of the thoughts and just continued to follow, closing the gap between them a little to prove a point to herself. There was nothing she had to worry about and deep down, she knew it. It was probably just the stress of such an early morning bothering her. Right now, she had to focus.

Kiba, on the other hand, could do nothing but focus. There was this feeling rising inside of him that he didn't quiet recognize. Sakura's presence was really fucking with his mind right now. He felt this undying need to protect her. Sure, she was his only team mate, but he had never felt this strongly about it before. In fact, the fact that she was walking so far behind him was annoying.

It had to be because this was the first time that he had ever been on a mission with her. Also, this was the first time that he had ever been on a mission with just a single female period. Usually, he had another guy there to have his back. But with just a girl, and one who mainly specialized in healing, he felt obligated to be more protective of her. That had to be it.

I didn't make many changes to this chapter, if any. It fit into the story so far as it was so I just went ahead and uploaded it. Hope you all enjoyed and please remember to review.

CYA!